On Thursday 16th April at 7 pm the Al-Hussein Cultural Centre in Ras al-Ain is opening its doors to an event arranged by The Danish Centre for Culture and Development in close cooperation with the Danish Embassy and the Royal Film Commission.
Written by H.E. Thomas F. Lund-Sørensen
Danish Ambassador
Beyond Stereotypes – as the event is called – will put spotlight on stereotypes.
I suppose most of us would like to be looked upon as individuals and not as belonging to one big bulk or group of individuals that can be put into a box defined by one culture, one nationality, one linguistic group and/or one religion. I also suppose that most of us have tried at one point or the other to be stereotyped into one of these boxes and felt that we did not belong there at all – although we did share some similarities with the others in that same box?
At a recent LEGO charity event that we had here in Jordan I attended a workshop with close to 80 participants. Each participant was given four identical yellow LEGO bricks and two red ones. Following, we were all asked to put together the bricks so that they would look like a duck. And guess what? Out of eighty ‘ducks’ not two single ‘ducks’ turned out to be identical – although they all came from the same little box of yellow and red LEGO bricks. Long live diversity!
Now – it might be that none of us were very talented LEGO brick builders but I am quite sure that most of the participants did know what a real duck looks like. But imagine if you had never seen a real duck in your entire life. Imagine if the only duck you ever saw was Donald Duck in a Walt Disney show and you truly believed that this is really how a duck looks like?
And isn’t that what sometimes happen to us? When we do not have the chance to make personal encounters we are forced to rely on what other people tell us and what we watch on the TV or read in the news.
In fact, what most of the world knows about the ‘others’ are based on what we are taught by the media – when we are watching a movie, reading the newspaper, facebooking or – as I am now – blogging on the internet.
In many ways we are lucky. Globalisation, satellite TV and the internet has given us opportunities that the majority of the generation before us had not even imagined would be possible. Opportunities not only to watch – but also an opportunity to interact.
These media are very powerful tools when it comes to creating stereotypes, transmitting them – or breaking them down. On Thursday 16th we are inviting you to meet a stand-up comedian, a journalist, a blogger, two filmmakers and an actor who will put spotlight on media and stereotypes. I hope that you will join us in a constructive reflection and debate over perceived stereotypes and how the media can help breaking down stereotypes – not building them up. To get the debate going I challenge you to start blogging about your thoughts right here and now and then we will follow up on the 16th.
Great and interesting article for an important event 🙂
“Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches.”-Harold Evans
Great and interesting article for an important event 🙂
“Attempting to get at truth means rejecting stereotypes and cliches.”-Harold Evans
Great intiative, as we still need to create alot of tolerance in our communities especialy the poor rural ones. I salute the Danish Embassador, I always check his blog
Great intiative, as we still need to create alot of tolerance in our communities especialy the poor rural ones. I salute the Danish Embassador, I always check his blog
[…] Stand-up stereotypes…! Please join me at the Al Hussein Cultural Center this Thursday the 16th at 7.00 PM for an evening with stand-up comedy, film, debate and hopefully animated and heated discussion about Arab and Danish stereotypes. DJ Shadi will entertain in the Lounge after the event. More on 7iber.com […]
I hope that concepts of The Other, views of the Occident from the Orient and vice versa, are discussed. I think it is interesting how everyone gets lumped together as “Arabs” or “Ajanb” or “White” person.
We should embrace the complexity and strive to understand the diversity and not rely on generalizations and stereotypes.
Great event, and thanks for posting this Ambassador!
I hope to see everyone there.
I hope that concepts of The Other, views of the Occident from the Orient and vice versa, are discussed. I think it is interesting how everyone gets lumped together as “Arabs” or “Ajanb” or “White” person.
We should embrace the complexity and strive to understand the diversity and not rely on generalizations and stereotypes.
Great event, and thanks for posting this Ambassador!
I hope to see everyone there.
Wonderful!
This is what the world really needs; more and more of bridging the gaps between the East and the West!
I admire what H.E Thomas F. Lund-Sørensen wrote, especially this quote “Long live diversity!”.
I hope that the world can really understand this reality, I would even call it “creativity”, which is unfortunately not being used at all”, cuz I wonder how great the world would be if we “thought” and then took the “action” of this diversity!
Thanks again,
Wonderful!
This is what the world really needs; more and more of bridging the gaps between the East and the West!
I admire what H.E Thomas F. Lund-Sørensen wrote, especially this quote “Long live diversity!”.
I hope that the world can really understand this reality, I would even call it “creativity”, which is unfortunately not being used at all”, cuz I wonder how great the world would be if we “thought” and then took the “action” of this diversity!
Thanks again,
[…] discussion can continue – either on this site, on 7iber.com or on some of the other bloggers site as on Roba’s which have drawn a large number of comments […]
[…] Lund-Sørensen announced the event on 7iberdotCom: Beyond Stereotypes – as the event is called – will put spotlight on […]
I am writing to let people know that Native Americans/American Indians/Indigenous people of North America are living, breathing human beings and are not extinct. We have over 500 tribes that all have their own languages, belief systems, and cultures and can’t/shouldn’t be generalized into one image. We don’t all live in teepees and wear feathers. As a matter of fact most of us live in houses, drive cars, have jobs, and go to school. We are not only stereotyped by media, but also not represented in media beyond mascots and western movies. So don’t forget about us, we are still here. Thank You.
I am writing to let people know that Native Americans/American Indians/Indigenous people of North America are living, breathing human beings and are not extinct. We have over 500 tribes that all have their own languages, belief systems, and cultures and can’t/shouldn’t be generalized into one image. We don’t all live in teepees and wear feathers. As a matter of fact most of us live in houses, drive cars, have jobs, and go to school. We are not only stereotyped by media, but also not represented in media beyond mascots and western movies. So don’t forget about us, we are still here. Thank You.